ALEPPO: Thousands of civilians poured out of rebel areas of Aleppo on Sunday as Syria's army pushed to take the last remnants of opposition-held territory in the devastated city.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces pounded the shrinking rebel enclave in east Aleppo with artillery and air strikes, a monitor said, with more than 10,000 people fleeing the area since midnight.
To the south in Palmyra, a Russian aerial onslaught killed scores of Islamic State group fighters, forcing the militants to withdraw from the ancient city just hours after they had re-entered it.
US and Russian officials were expected to continue talks in Geneva Sunday on trying to reach a ceasefire in Aleppo, but a week of intense diplomatic efforts have failed to stem the fighting.
Heavy bombardment shook the city overnight, AFP correspondents in Aleppo said, as Syria's army and allied forces pursued a weeks-long offensive that has seen them retake about 85 percent of east Aleppo, a rebel stronghold since 2012.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the 10,000 who had fled since midnight headed to government-held west Aleppo and newly retaken areas in the north and centre of the city.
State news agency SANA said at least 4,000 people had fled rebel districts in just hours on Sunday and were taken by bus to temporary shelters.
- 'Broken the back' of rebels -
Fighting raged on several fronts between opposition and regime forces in southeast Aleppo, the Observatory said, while regime raids and artillery fire continued to pound rebel-held areas.
An AFP correspondent in west Aleppo said that heavy bombardment of the east was heard through the night, and that it was so intense that it rattled windows in western districts.
At least 413 civilians have been killed in east Aleppo since the start of the offensive, according to the Observatory, and 139 killed in rebel rocket fire on the city's west.
At least 80,000 people had already fled eastern Aleppo before Sunday, according to the monitor.
Experts say the retaking of all of Aleppo by Assad's forces appears to be only a matter of time and will deal the biggest blow to Syria's opposition since the start of the country's civil war in 2011.
"We're now past the point where the opposition has any hope of pulling things back," said Yezid Sayigh, a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Assad "will have in effect broken the back of the armed opposition... and the idea that the regime can be overcome militarily will be finally put to rest."
Backing from Moscow, which launched an air war in support of Assad last year, has been crucial in the army's ability to make gains.
Overnight Sunday Russian warplanes carried out more than 60 strikes on IS positions Palmyra, killing more than 300 militants and halting their latest offensive on the famed desert city in central Syria.
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